SAVE YOUR MONEY!! Fitbit Ionics have major "known" battery issues, and terrible support!

[Jaykat]

I bought my Fitbit Ionic about 6 weeks ago.  For the first month, the battery lasted 3-4 days.  About 4 weeks after my purchase, the battery (after a full charge) would last only 8-9 hours.  I contacted support, and they told me that since I purchased on eBay, they cannot provide any support.

NOTE: The watch I purchased was new in box and unopened with receipt.  Since eBay is not an "authorized dealer," Fitbit doesn't care about you, or supporting their crappy products.

Support told me to do useless things like factory resets.  This is clearly a hardware issue, so I don't see what a reset would do.  Anyhow, it didn't work, and I had to re-set up my Fitbit again.  FUN!  

2 weeks later, I was charging my Ionic, and it just turned off.  I have been unable to get it to turn back on since, and have gone back to my Apple Watch, which has never let me down.  So I paid $300 for a Fitbit Ionic that lasted 6 weeks.  Now its a hockey puck. So disappointed!

[USAF-Larry]

Sorry to hear you had problem with your Ionic, @Jaykat, but curious where you got the information that it has "major 'known' battery issues".  I have had my Ionic since early October and have had no battery issues with it - it still maintains good battery life for about 5 days, depending on the amount of GPS usage.  It is true, though, that Fitbit does no accept warranty responsibility when the tracker is purchased from some place other than an authorized retailer.

[DonaldMReif]

Source? If it's a "well-known" battery issue, why haven't I read anything about it?

And since you were buying through eBay instead of through an authorized retailer (I'm guessing to save money?), you might very well have gotten a knockoff product instead of the real deal.

[WavyDavey]

I've gotten a good 4-5 days of charge every week for some months now. I don't constantly top it off but let it get down a little first.

Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous sellers on ebay. Some will repackage, sell knock-offs, returns. It's pretty much the Wild West there.

@Jaykat, you mentioned it came with a receipt. Who was the seller on the receipt?

[bbarrera]

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@Jaykatwrote:

NOTE: The watch I purchased was new in box and unopened with receipt.  Since eBay is not an "authorized dealer," Fitbit doesn't care about you, or supporting their crappy products.

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@Jaykat sorry to hear that, and forget about eBay for a minute... Fitbit only warrants the original buyer. So two strikes although if a name isn't on the receipt, and it was purchased from say a local store and authorized store like Best Buy or Dick's Sporting Goods or Target, then I'd try again at getting an exchange or my money back.

(Its hard for me to wrap my brain around that, having bought a bunch of used Dell and Apple gear where the warranty transfers)